Property in Suffolk: A Hurricane in the garden

Zoe Dare Hall visits the house and workshop where old fighters are restored

Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, is a customer. So is Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings, as are the world's aviation museums, from the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, to London's RAF museum.

Such is Tony Ditheridge's renown in the field of restoring aircraft that the 61-yearold has built up a global business, Hawker Restorations, all from the aircraft hangar in his back garden in Suffolk.

The idea took seed 27 years ago, when Tony and his wife Janet bought Moat Farm, a 15th-century house with moat and 15 acres of land, in Milden, near Ipswich. Over the years, the couple have furnished the three-bedroom house in suitably Tudor style, and turned a derelict barn in the garden into a five-bedroom annexe around a swimming pool. There are two cottages which are used for holiday lets, along with a garage where Tony keeps his vintage car collection.

But foremost in Tony's mind when he bought Moat Farm was where to house his 1941 Tiger Moth. "My hobby was flying and it seemed far more convenient to land my plane in my garden so I built a fully-insulated aircraft hangar, workshop and landing strip in a four-acre field," he says. "It must have looked odd, in a tranquil, rural area, to have me landing my 1940s biplane in my garden, but people around here have always been very supportive."

His hobby spawned a business in restoring First World War planes. "I became quite successful at doing that so I decided to move up a step and rebuild a Hawker Hurricane, which was a daunting task that cost millions of pounds," says Tony, who is now considered one of the world's Hurricane experts.

Sir Tim Wallis, the New Zealand aviator, came to Tony's assistance. "Fortuitously, Tim had just recovered a Hurricane in Russia. He came to see my workshop at Moat Farm and left me with a large cheque and the instruction to get on with that and three other Hurricanes. There are now 13 Hurricanes in operation around the world, and I have worked on nine of them."

Moat Farm is on the market at £1.9 million with Carter Jonas (01787 882881, www.carterjonas.co.uk). "We have outgrown our garden," Tony says. "We can fly light aircraft in and out, but Hurricanes and other war birds need to be launched on a safe CAA-approved airfield."

He and Janet are looking for a smaller farmhouse nearby, and Tony will buy or lease a local airfield. "The business will continue and I may move into the Hurricane maintenance side too. It just won't be based in my back garden any longer."

Two for sale for aeroplane fanatics

£499,950 Farnborough Central includes 476 new and refurbished homes close to Farnborough Airfield in Hampshire. Apartments start at £187,000, three-bedroom houses from £275,000 through Knight Frank (www.knightfrank.com, 01483 564660).

£925,000 Nutkins Cottage is a five-bedroom house in Kingsclere, near Newbury, with a microlite landing strip and hangar in its three-acre garden. There are also enclosures for breeding poultry. Dreweatt Neate (www.dnproperty.co.uk, 01635 263000).